Foucault, Michel

"The body is the surface upon which society writes its laws and norms."

"We must not think that by saying yes to life we exclude death; rather, we must say yes to both."

"Language is not what I use to express myself; I am what language uses to express itself."

"Knowledge is not made for understanding; it is made for cutting."

"The relation between sexuality and power is far more complex than simple repression."

"History does not belong to us; we belong to history."

"Truth is not outside power, nor does it lack power."

"To define is to limit; every definition is a form of violence."

"The more one possesses, the more one is possessed by one's possessions."

"Madness and reason are not opposites; madness is reason's exile."

"We are not born with an identity; identity is something we are forced to become."

"Freedom is not a given; it is something that must be practiced and defended."

"The confession is not liberation; it is another form of control."

"What is called 'human nature' is largely the product of historical discourse."

"Silence is also a form of speech; it communicates what words cannot."

"We must become who we are not yet; this is the task of thought."

"Every act of creation is an act of destruction."

"To write is to fight against the weight of inherited meanings."

"The modern individual is both more free and more controlled than ever before."

"Pleasure is not what we think it is; it is something to be discovered."

"Systems of knowledge are always systems of power."

"The body speaks a language that words cannot capture."

"To be sane in an insane world requires a certain madness."

"We are always already implicated in the structures we seek to critique."

"The past is not dead; it lives within our present utterances."

"Freedom emerges not from absence of constraint, but from transforming constraints."

"Discourse creates subjects; subjects do not exist prior to discourse."

"Memory is not personal; it is always already collective and contested."

"To love is to risk being known, truly known."

"The archive is not a collection of documents; it is a system of possibility."